What you collect from the riverside
by moonsofmars
Summary: Colour blind Soulmate AU. Diane did not expect to find a wounded young boy on the riverside, nor she expected to see there her first colour.


**A/N: **Here's something I wrote for a challenge, I've got a colour as a prompt and this is what my mind came out with. I probably love Soulmate AUs too much, and this was the perfect occasion to try this one! I have so many ideas about how this could continue, but for now, that's all.

Enjoy!

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**What you collect from the riverside**

Diane hums as she walks alongside the river, enjoying the warmth of the midday sun on her exposed skin. Her eyes wander over the greyness of the grass and the dark of the ground, looking for the plant with the six-pointed leaves. She can't remember exactly who taught her that if she presses its roots she will obtain a sap that can help to keep a wound clean and healthy - maybe it was her mother, maybe that older girl who always took care of her when her parents were out to fight - but she remembers the first time she used it, the sticky liquid smudging her fingers and crawling under the nails. The scratches on her knees had never healed so fast, and that's exactly what she needs now. To close a wound. Though this time, it's not hers.

She smiles unconsciously when her mind goes to the little boy she found on the riverside, just a few days ago. Her breath had stopped when she had realised that the dirty mass of cloth was a person, and when she had understood that the dark, irregular spots on his clothes had to be bloodstains she had feared she had found a dead body. But he wasn't dead, he _is not_ dead, and Diane is determined to make things stay that way. Harlequin is already getting better, and the last time he woke up he even talked with her a little, though he drawled a bit and he didn't seem to be able to explain to her how he had ended up in the river with a large but luckily not too deep cut on his chest and belly. He wasn't able to tell her anything about him at all, actually, but maybe he just needs some time to get better - when she had found him, he was really in bad shape. His wound seems to heal well enough, but Diane wants to make sure that it won't get infected. That's why she left him asleep in the cave she now calls home and went outside to look for the plant. It's not the first time she needs it, and she knows that there are some bushes a bit more down by the river.

It shouldn't take long to get there by now, she thinks as she picks up the pace, lowering her gaze to study the varied vegetation of the riverside. All the leaves and the flowers are a shade of white or grey, yet she likes to observe them, discerning the different hues and shapes, trying to imagine how they would appear to a person who can see the colours. It's silly, she knows it, she can't even imagine a single different colour from the ones she has grown up with, but it's a good dream. Hopefully, one day, she will see the world how it really is.

Soon she distinguishes the shape of one of those plants, the form of its leaves making it easy to recognise it even in the middle of the other shrubs that grow on the bank of the river. Her smile widens, though only for a moment, because then a stabbing pain in her eyes makes her squeeze her lids. She rubs a hand over the right one letting out an annoyed snort. This stinging feeling is tormenting her for days, like there is constantly sand in her eyes, and it doesn't matter how many times she washes them, it always comes back. When it gets better she forces her eyelids open with a grunt, refusing to let that stupid pain slow her down. Surely Harlequin feels worse, and she wants - she _really_ wants - to make him feel better.

Another two steps and then she can kneel near the bush she was looking for, her hands slipping under the foliage to reach the trunk. Carefully, she pulls it up, helping the roots out of the ground without breaking them - she wants to get as much sap as she can. When she is sure she brought out everything, she lets out a satisfied sigh, curving slightly her lips as she lifts the plant. It's then that she catches glimpse of something with the corner of her eye. Mindlessly, she simply glances at it, her mind still focused on what she has to do now - washing the roots from the ground so that it won't contaminate the unguent - then she turns her head completely, blinking. And she freezes. There is a plant on the river's edge, its flowers soaring towards the sky sustained by thin stems, the tiny petals flat and open around the pistils. They are not … Diane tries to breathe, but the air gets stuck in her throat, and she blinks again, but nothing changes. The petals are not grey, nor any shades of it, they are not black nor white and they are nothing she has ever seen. They have a colour, she realises, but a different colour, something she is not supposed to see until -

Until she meets them. She remembers what they always told her, back in Megadozer, that only the ones who find their soulmate get to see the other colours. Slowly, maybe starting from a single shade and then all of them, little by little, until the world becomes a combination of all the nuances she could dream of. But then that means that - the only other person she met over the past few months is -

_Harlequin_.

The plant still clutched in her hand, her grip tightening around the wood, she gets up and slowly comes closer to the little flowers, eyes wide as she studies the way their shade changes along the form of the petals, turning into grey towards the bottom. She has no idea how this colour is called, she has nothing with which she can compare it, but it's different - it's _beautiful_ \- and it means that she found her soulmate and that maybe she will not be alone ever again. Her heart pounds against her ribs like the furious beating of a bird's wings when she reaches for a bunch of flowers, and carefully she picks them, moving delicately her finger and holding her breath - they are so tiny, maybe the size of her little fingernail. She almost fears that their colour will melt away under her touch, but it's still there in the light grey of her hand. Then, she gives up. In a moment, she has turned away and she is running as fast as she can, holding the flowers against her chest, heading home. She doesn't care that she should wash those roots, nor that now plots of ground are falling on her dress. Soulmates, they taught her, start to see the colours at the same time and she needs to be sure.

The way to get there has never felt so long, but finally, she sees the entry of the cave and in a second she bursts in, looking for him. Harlequin is exactly where she left him, in the bed of leaves that she made for him, though now he is awake, sitting on the ground, brows furrowed and a focused look in his eyes. He raises his head when he hears her come and he blinks in surprise. "Ah, Diane! Where -"

"Harlequin," she kneels in front of him, putting the bush aside as she pushes the flowers towards him, "do you see it?"

The boy's look of confusion turns into amazement when he finally moves his eyes from her face to the flowers. He stares at them for a long moment, he blinks and rubs his eyes. Then his gaze returns to her, "I … I think I do," he stammers, swallowing. "Wait, you are seeing it too for - for the first time?"

The way he looks at her, astonishment and hope glowing in his eyes, makes her beam at him when she answers, her voice trembling for excitement, "Yes!" Then, softly, she whispers, "It's you," because she still can't believe that she found him, that she found her soulmate. A little boy she pulled out of the river. "I've found you," she can't help but chuckle, and Harlequin finally smiles her back, flush creeping over his cheeks and his eyes shining with something that Diane thinks - hopes - it's the same happiness that is warming her heart.

"It's me," he answers, his voice full of wonder, like he is trying to realise what this really means for him, for them. Briefly, Diane wonders if he wanted this. To find his soulmate in a young, lonely Giant girl - she somehow doubts he ever imagined her to be like that. Her heart skips a beat as fear grips her throat, fear that he will be disappointed by her, that he will reject her and leave her alone once again - but it's only a moment, because she can't misunderstand the joyful curve of his smile, nor the emotion that makes his voice slightly shake when he whispers, "You did find me. Thank you."

Diane doesn't know how he will feel about all of this, once he is healed and free to go, but for now, he is happy, and that's all that matters. Her smile widens, and she has to hold back from grabbing him and hugging him - he is still wounded, she has to remind to herself, and so fragile and tiny in her hands - so she hands him out the flowers instead. "Do you know how this colour is called?" There are some colours she knows the names, she heard them more than once - the sky is blue, they say, and the grass is green and the ground deep brown, but the flowers can have different colours, and she has no idea how to call that one.

Harlequin gently take a flower in his hands, his skin pleasingly touching hers, and brushes the petals with his fingers. Then he shakes his head. "I think this is an orchid," he says, looking up at her, "I … someone taught me that." He stops, furrowing his brows, a blank stare in his eyes. It disappears when he blinks. "But orchids can have different shades," he continues, lowering his head apologetically, "and I've never … I don't know which one is this. I'm sorry."

Diane purses her lips and pokes his cheek with a finger, making him flinch and raise his brows as he glances at her with worry. "Don't be sorry, silly," she says, then she giggles, "we will find out together."

She finds adorable the way his eyes go round and his cheek and neck blushes, then he finally relaxes, making her a large smile. "You are right," he says, excitement flickering in his eyes, "we will."

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**Notes: **It's not very clear since King doesn't remember anything, but the person who taught him how to identify flowers is Gerheade because no one can convince me that she didn't raise him and take care of him when he was young.


End file.
